Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Faith and reproductive rights

"Growing up in a Christian home, I was taught by my father – also a Baptist minister - that God has given each of us free will and the responsibility to exercise it according to our understanding of God’s plan. As a young African-American man growing up in the South in the 1940s and as a minister in Washington DC, I saw firsthand how Black women and poor women suffered because they had few or no choices about an unintended pregnancy, even if it would damage their health or cause great hardship in their family. Some of them were maimed in back-alley abortions; some of them died. I believe it is a sin to force women to have a pregnancy they do not want – and, if a child is born, a sin to deny that child basic health, education and housing. "

This is what Rev. Dr. Carlton W. Veazey has to say today in his blog post on RH Reality Check. It's an interesting approach to the religion and reproductive rights debate, and Veazey believes it's important "to let voters know there are many diverse beliefs about abortion among religions."

Read the rest here, and read other blog posts in RH Reality Check's series "Our Shared American Values" here.